Devoted and Disgruntled Archivist

Bristol is perceived as an exciting place to be, making itself out to be the most exciting place theatrically outside of London. Is there the Dick Wittington effect? The streets are paved with theatre.

An actress who works anywhere other than Bristol, where she lives. ‘Manchester is much more exciting, accessible and inclusive across class and age groups. Range of venues too - Royal Exchange, The Library Theatre, Contact Theatre, Oldham, Bolton Octagon, The Lowry...’

We've allowed TV to walk away from the city - BBC, Casualty, ect - without putting up much of a fight. Are we now just a poor relation to Cardiff? Edinburgh, Dublin, Amsterdam, Munich.

'The Elephant in the room' Bristol Old Vic. Not mentioned today as a topic, huge funding but does it all go on theatre?

Theatre student - doesn't feel drawn to their programming, why are they getting all the money if the exciting things like Mayfest, Ferment, Jam isn't funded by that big pot? Why are they always doing the same stuff? Who does it appeal to?

'Theatre is dominated by white male middle class'

Tobacco Factory has the right ambience and programming, you feel like going into it, even just for a drink. Mayfest and the Blind Tiger make BOV more welcoming, do they need to get rid of their uniforms?

Report - ‘Bristol awarded best small city of the future’

But what about the present?

'Bristol is really vibrant' and a few years ago there was the attitude of ‘Oh, but it’s Bristol, it'll never happen' that is going.

'Bristol is a ghetto-ized city' and it's shown in the theatre, there is great disabled theatre which is exported all over Europe, but does anyone else in Bristol see it? And that goes for black and young companies too. Festivals help ease those issue because they ‘represent’ and are ‘getting much better at being diverse and eclectic’.

'The issue of Nelson Street' and the graffiti festival, Bristol is infamous for Banksy but are these works ‘a little bit like litter left behind’ and not like the beauty of theatre where it happens and is done, then ‘you pack up and leave it ready for the playgroup in the morning’. Theatre buildings need to be more flexible.

We aren't challenging the statement or endorsing it, but trying to unpick it.

'Maybe the key moment was Dick Penny saving the Bristol Old Vic' Perhaps ‘saving’ is

the wrong word. But Bristol Old Vic ‘has so many gate keepers’. ‘We don’t need to be a regional outpost for the National Theatre Studio'. It can feel that way. It can feel as though if your local you can volunteer, usher but if your going to create you'll probably be from somewhere else. Accessibility is a key issue, ‘you have to be able to survive’: Made in Bristol scheme for example, and also the profile of the Young Company is improving.

Are we being represented in writing? If we are we can do something about it. LAMDA/RADA ect do they learn Brizzle accents? But then if there is no writing then there will be no actors to do it. It's a cycle. If you've got everyone in one place like Bristol there will be collaboration is great, but there is also over saturation. There are more actors than 20 years ago, which means people start to work for free - an issue in all sorts of areas of the arts. It also makes people make ‘me,me,me’ work to showcase themselves in venues that they can get: ‘I don’t know how to work at BOV or TF so I'll book a room and do something because I need to do something' but what about when you've done ‘something’? ‘We asked the world to come but they didn’t, not the big players anyway' How do we access the big people? What are the routes through? How do we keep doors open. But the problem is the big players can't see 5 things a day, how can they choose?

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Latest

We live now in information - it is our environment. An aspect of what we can do in response to current events is the information we have about what's actually going on. Perhaps if we can clean up the information environment we will make better decisions about what to do next.

We combined two discussions, one about what it was to navigate the world of theatre with a female body and the other about what it was to navigate that world with a working class voice. There are many parallels.

To get more diversity in our arts scene we will need to deal with the emotional undercurrents that are fueling our behaviour and impeding progress. What solutions do we have for addressing this? We did focus on what it means to be a woman who is doing this. What is below is not a prescription, rather a record of our discussion.

"How do we improve female working class visiblility in the arts?" was the question posed at the start of day.
As a female arts sector leader (Festival Director - therefore a programmer, fundraiser, commissioner, debater, network lead/contributor, ambassador, etc), I felt it was important to ask what people wanted or needed from me, as someone who has a voice -in certain spaces- to offer. I was trying to buck the assumption that I would already know what women wanted from their peers and lead

The use of co-productions between opera houses across different parts of the world is claimed to be a way to pool companies’ resources and save money. However, is a consequence of this practice that such productions are likely to communicate less effectively with the audience of any single theatre because they are trying to reach too many different audiences at the same time and because taste varies so greatly across the world?

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